A man last week may have inadvertently led authorities to uncover a major fraud ring in which manufactured fraudulent credit cards were used to illegally purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise and services in at least two states, Athens-Clarke County police said Monday.

Royal Lee Reed, 26, of Decatur was driving a car without the headlights on at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 3600 block of Atlanta Highway. When police learned his driver’s license was suspended, Reed was immediately placed under arrest.

His car was then searched because the interior had an odor of burnt marijuana, according to police.

During the search, police said they found a "stack" of debit cards that were obviously fraudulent, with all cards bearing the names of Reed’s two passengers – Kimberly Adrianna Banks, 20, of Dallas, and 19-year-old Chandlee Jill Cunard of Hiram.

In addition to that stack of cards, more fake cards apparently had been hastily thrown under the driver’s seat, police said, and Cunard had more cards concealed in her bra.

The cards not only bore the names of the two women, they all had the same three-digit CVV (card verification value number) on the back, police said.

While Banks claimed to have "little knowledge" of the cards, police said Cunard told them that Reed "was paying them to do a job." Initially hesitant to go into greater detail, Cunard "implicated herself by saying she tried to use one of the cards at Outback Steakhouse on Atlanta Highway," according to the police report.

Further investigation revealed that the fraudulent cards were declined by two other Atlanta Highway restaurants Wednesday night, but the suspects were able to used fraudulent bank cards to buy gift cards totaling more than $1,000 in value from LongHorn Steakhouse in Athens.

Also found during the initial search if the suspects’ car, police said, were "a lot of receipts" for purchases totaling more than $11,000 from stores in South Carolina and Georgia.

During the traffic stop, police noted that all three suspects were constantly on their phones — typical behavior for members of a criminal ring attempting to inform co-conspirators about their involvement with law enforcement,

Police said they seized six phones from the suspects as part of the investigation, then had the car towed to a police impound lot where it could be searched more thoroughly.

All three suspects were charged with five counts of financial transaction card fraud and 50 counts of forgery of a financial transaction card, police said. Reed was additionally charged with driving on a suspended license and driving without headlights.

Banks, who had a small amount of pot in her purse, was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, police said.